In a follow up to a pervious post on the DVD release of the updated Doctor Who TV series, the decision to have it available here before the show gets an American distributor seems to financial. Even though the BBC will only side step that issue.
Back in summer, when the BBC announced the release of the first season on DVD in Britain, many here in the Colonies wondered if we would ever see it, especially since no network -broadcast or cable -seemed interested in it (but that might be because to get the new show, they had to buy the Original one). Then in October, the BBC said they would be releasing the Region 1 verison of the show in Canada only, as suave people north of the border seemed to know what was good, as they were the only country in North America to buy it.
But in doing so, the BBC had to realize that anyone with a home computer who could type Amazon.ca (or better yet, people who had region free DVD players and just ordered it directly from England) would be able to get it. Plus, add all the people who live close to the border of Canada who could just drive there and pick it up.
So with global access just a few keystrokes away, Burton Cromer—vice president of BBC Direct- told SCI FI Wire that the BBC made the unusual decision to release the DVD in the United States before the show had found a broadcast outlet there because the fan base was strong here in the lower 48's.
Plus, he would add, it was bound to find its way on to American TV, one way or the other.
"It will be going on television," Cromer said in an interview. "There are lots of discussions going on, and I can't really talk about that. This is a unique situation, really, because there are so many fans of Doctor Who ... already out there, and we were just finding [that] people were getting ... secondhand copies or copies from the U.K. ... We really wanted fans to get the best, most complete version in the United States as [soon as] we possibly could. So we made the decision, and it is unique, to go ahead of the TV broadcast with the DVD and to release the gift set of the DVD basically within two and a half to three months [after] the U.K. [version]."
Since its premiere earlier this year, the updated Doctor Who has been a smash hit in Great Britain, and U.S. fans have been clamoring for a way to see the series legally stateside. There's no downside to a U.S. DVD release, even if the show has yet to be seen on American TV, Cromer added. "The good news for us is that we already have that loyal fan base, but then when the show does broadcast in the U.S., we'll have a whole new fan base, because it's just a new Doctor Who: very exciting, but still the great stories and as great as the old Doctor Who," he said.
Doctor Who is gearing up production of its second season in the United Kingdom, which will appear next year. A special Christmas episode, meanwhile, will air this month. The U.S. DVD will feature the entire first season of Doctor Who, starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper.
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